A look at the future of artificial intelligence

Marvin is just a few inches tall, but he has a big mouth."What do you think of that, human?" he sneers as he ties the scores 1-1."Is that the best you can do?" he jeers as he takes a 2-1 lead.TNN | November 18, 2016, 09:25 IST

Las Vegas: Marvin is just a few inches tall, but he has a big mouth. "What do you think of that, human?" he sneers as he ties the scores 1-1. "Is that the best you can do?" he jeers as he takes a 2-1 lead. Moments later, his tone switches to pleading. "Oh no, IBM will fire me if I lose," he says, as the score is tied 2-2. The decisive move comes up, and Marvin is beaten. "My robot mind is officially blown," he intones, making a fizzing sound as the audience laughs and claps.

The game the cute little robot was playing -- Rock, Paper, Scissors -- has been played by children for generations. But when this seemingly simple game is played hundreds of times, it throws up a wealth of data that can be crunched to come up with complex strategies. Marvin has played it over 600 times with human rivals already, and every time he plays, he learns. "You won't beat me again," he tells one of the humans who is walking away triumphantly. It's meant as a joke, but one suspects that there may be an element of truth to it. Marvin is one of several devices, including Pepper, a robotic concierge, Olli, an interactive, self-driving minibus made of 3D printed parts, and Rita, an intuitive whiteboard that provides transcripts of meetings taking place in the room, and also offers translations on request, that were on display at IBM World of Watson(WOW). The three-day conference, attended by over 17,000 people, was essentially a showcase for Watson, IBM's ambitious, multi-billion dollar bet on artificial intelligence, the new frontier that every major tech giant - from Amazon to Google to Microsoft -is racing to explore. IBM, though, insists that Watson is more than just AI, and prefers to use the term 'cognitive' when referring to Watson's capabilities. Unlike conventional computers, which have to be programmed, Watson understands the world in the way that humans do: through senses, learning and experience, but at a speed no human can match - it can read more than 800 million pages per second.

Unsurprisingly, India plays a key part in IBM's plans, both as potential market and talent pool. "The biggest developer conference that happened (for the company) this year was in Bengaluru. We're planning another one there soon. There is just amazing talent that we see, so I am very excited about it (India)," said IBM WatsonGM David Kenny. "We see a lot of innovation coming out of India... There isn't much legacy that needs to be adopted, so people are immediately deciding cognitive systems," he added.

Watson first shot to fame in 2011 when it beat two human champions in the quiz show, Jeopardy. More recently, it assisted Grammy-winning music producer Alex Da Kid in creating a song called "It's Not Easy", which was released just last week. During a discussion with IBM CEO Ginni Rometty at the conference, Da Kid revealed that the song had already gone to No.1 on Spotify. He declined to perform it live, quipping that he was "very expensive", but said he planned to collaborate on at least three more songs with Watson. But while the fun and games - and song and dance -- get the headlines, Watson has become a significant presence in healthcare, particularly in the treatment of cancer. John Kelly III, senior vice president of Cognitive Solutions and IBM Research, predicted, "In three to five years, every single medical professional is going to want to consult Watson." Rometty went further in her keynote address, saying that Watson had "already achieved critical mass". Stressing that Watson is not so much about artificial intelligence as "augmenting intelligence" (of the human kind), she said Watson already touches the lives of 200 million consumers, and this figure is expected to touch 1 billion by the end of 2017.

One of the drivers of this growth is expected to be IBM's tie-up with GM to provide OnStar Go, an interactive system with Watson embedded in it, which will learn from the driver's behaviour to offer personalised suggestions and experiences. These could include avoiding traffic when you're low on fuel, then activating a fuel pump and paying from the dashboard; while ordering a cup of coffee on the go. The announcement was made jointly by Rometty and GM CEO Mary Barra in a power moment that featured two of the world's top businesswomen together on stage.

(The writer was at the World of Watson conference at the invitation of IBM)

Several people ET spoke with about Ericsson’s India operations, including its current and former employees, said the Stockholm-based firm has reduced headcount in the last one year or so across functions, in line with its global restructuring.